A Town Called Defiance
by FiresofAnarchy
Summary: A collection of one shots featuring various characters from Defiance.
1. The Things We Leave Behind

**A Town Called Defiance**

 **The Things We Leave Behind**

 **So I haven't updated this in a while but I'm back. This first chapter is essentially the same though I changed some of the dialogue because I didn't like it. I was listening to Our Last Days by The Fray while writing this.**

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Nothing lasts forever, he had learned that lesson very well at ten years old when the Votans arrived and pulled the rug out from under his life for the first time. Back then it had been relatively easy to get through the changes. He was a kid and while there were certainly things he missed about the world that was he was spared most of the real struggles that came with your home planet becoming the host to alien refugees. A small stature and an adorable smile could get you pretty far even in a world gone mad.

A world gone mad was exactly what the war with Votans had been. He had lost his parents not long after the Votans arrived and he could have broken down right there if he hadn't had his sister to get him through it. Losing her had been the blow that really made it sink in for him that his life was never going to be easy again. He enlisted shortly thereafter and the army continued to introduce him to one Hell after another until that day they found Irisa.

Irisa, he had thought that what they had would be the thing that lasted. It did, far longer than his biological family had, but as with before the world kept pulverizing that one lesson into his skull with relentless force. Defiance had been nice, a life better than any he had had before. He had a purpose, a place to lay his head at night that wasn't the hard ground, and a woman that showed him more love than he probably deserved. It had been hard to leave it all behind, but even now, walking through streets that seemed familiar and foreign to him at the same time, he was sure that it had been the right decision.

"Is that Lawkeeper Nolan," he heard a hushed voice say.

"I thought he was dead," another replied.

He sighed to himself, this was going to be a lot harder than he had pictured it in his head, and it had been pretty hard in his head. He decided to go to the NeedWant first, that would be the least likely place to have too personal of an encounter with anyone. Even if Amanda happened to be there he could find a dark corner to hide in while he gathered his thoughts. What thoughts he was trying to gather and what he would say to anyone from the old days he happened to run into, particularly Irisa or Amanda were still as much a mystery to him as anyone else. As he entered the establishment his eyes flicked around looking for Amanda. He couldn't decide if he was relieved or disappointed that he couldn't spot her. He moved to sit down at one of bar stools.

"What'll it be honey," a bartender he didn't recognize asked him almost immediately.

"Whiskey," he said.

"Wait you're Joshua Nolan," the young woman said as she sat a shot glass down in front of him and began pouring. "The man from the wall; I always thought you died ten years ago during the whole mess with the Omec."

He followed where her finger was pointing to find a picture of himself in full Lawkeeper garb hung prominently on one of the far walls.

"I've been getting that a lot," he said. "Guess that's what I get for disappearing for ten years."

"I've never met someone who has a monument named after him before," she said.

"What," he questioned.

"They named the Arch after you," she said. "Everyone hears the story about what a big hero Joshua Nolan was whenever they come into town."

"Amanda," he guessed with the hint of a smile.

"Rosewater," she said with only a hint of recognition. "Not for some time, she's been dead since before I arrived here."

Before he even realized what was happening the small glass was shattering in his hand and he was headed out the door and towards the Lawkeeper's office. Amanda was dead. How could that have happened? He had only been gone for ten years. A decade wasn't that long was it? Of course a decade of his life was all it had taken for the Votans to arrive and another decade of his life was all it had taken for all out war to be declared between humans and Votans. Who was he to scoff at what destruction the world could wreak on his life in yet another decade?

He entered the Lawkeeper's office without thinking and before he could even get his general bearings of how much the place had changed since his stint the unmistakable sounds of sex filled his ears. His eyes coming somewhat begrudgingly into focus he reluctantly took in the scene in front of him. That was definitely a completely naked Berlin pressed up against the wall by an Irathient who from the breathless phrases coming out of said woman's mouth he could reasonably surmise was his daughter.

"Ten years away and you still find a way to scar me for life Irisa," he said bitterly as he made his way swiftly out the door and back into the busy streets. He leaned himself against a nearby wall and tried, unsuccessfully, to shake the images of what he had just seen out of his head. It only took a few minutes before said daughter came walking, unsurely out of the building and towards where he now leaned.

"What exactly were you two thinking in there," he couldn't help but say. "Half the town could have walked in."

"Really," his daughter fixed him with an unsure look. "You're gone for ten years and that's all you have to say to me."

"No it's not," he said. "Sorry."

He took in the appearance of his daughter. Her hair now had several braids in it that hadn't been there before and was considerably longer overall. She wore a pair of black, leather boots that went up slightly higher than her old ones had. Tucked into these boots was a pair of grey leggings that stretched up before they were covered by a medium length, black skirt. She wore a black leather jacket over top of a simple grey shirt with a small necklace with a key hanging off it and her Lawkeeper's badge completing the ensemble.

"I like the new look," he said. "It suits you."

"I think it does too," she said eyes darting back in time to see Berlin make her own way out of the office.

"So you and Berlin then," he said uncomfortably.

"Yeah," she said with equal hints of being uncomfortable. "Going on three years now."

"Good," he said. "You deserve someone who cares about you."

"What are you doing here," she asked. "Not that I'm not happy to see you, but the way you left didn't leave a lot of room for coming back."

"The trip didn't turn out quite as one way as it looked," he said.

"What happened to you up there," she continued pressing.

"A long story," was all he offered. "It wasn't exactly an easy journey up there, but we made it through."

"Doc Yewll," she questioned.

"She wasn't as adamant as me about coming back here," he said.

"It's good to see you again," she said moving to wrap him in a hug. "I missed you."

"I missed you too baby girl," he said.

"Is Defiance everything you expected it to be," she said after they broke apart.

"Almost," he said forlornly.

"It was a trade deal gone wrong," Irisa said seemingly reading his mind. "Some guys who were looking to collect a bounty under the guise of establishing trade, I was the only one that made it out alive."

"I'm sure you did all you could," he said patting her on the shoulder.

"She never gave up hope you know," she said.

"No," he said smiling. "That wouldn't have been like her at all."

"We gave those bastards what they had coming to them a few days later," she said.

"I never doubted that baby girl," he said.

Nothing lasts forever, it was a lesson Nolan knew now better than ever, but right now in this moment with his daughter in arms reach again he was glad that some things didn't. Amanda wasn't his, hadn't been for a long time and would never be again. He had left the Earth behind knowing full well that he might never see anything or anyone he loved ever again. But he was back and his daughter was still his daughter and he decided that he would focus more on that than another person he loved leaving him too soon. Mourning would come with time, but for now he was happy to just hug his daughter again and leave all of that other stuff to figure out another day.


	2. An Imperfect Home

**A Town Called Defiance**

 **An Imperfect Home**

 **So I wrote this chapter as a sort of counterpoint to the first one and it turned out far shorter than I thought it would, but I still think it does its job. I was listening to Terminal by Echosmith while writing this.**

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Most people, Votan and human alike, particularly in the initial aftermath of the Votan arrival on Earth and then again during and after the Pale Wars, had a pretty us and them view of living with their new alien neighbors. The humans viewed the Votans as nothing more than invaders looking to take their home away from them and the Votans in turn looked down on the humans as inferior beings that should offer up their homes and resources just because of that fact. There was a sense of community in splitting off into these factions that Irisa could understand, but despite efforts, whether consciously or unconsciously, by both Nolan and Sukar, she would always be an outsider to both worlds.

Throughout her life both humans and Votans had hurt her and loved her in equal measure. She couldn't be sure if she had ever been anything more than a tool to her birthparents and the rest of the cult that very nearly sacrificed her but if there had been a time where that was the case she couldn't remember it. And of course over the course of time that she had spent on the road with Nolan there had been times where human settlements had turned them away simply because she wasn't one of them. In times like those Nolan told her that the world was full of stupid people and that she shouldn't let their words and actions get her down. She needed to keep pushing forward in the hope that something better was waiting for her over the next rise or beyond the next valley.

Nolan had been the only constant in her life, the only thing that she could identify that resembled the definition of a home, for so long that she had begun to think that she would never need anything else to make her happy. As long as she had her father she had someone that loved her unconditionally and anyone or anything else would just get in the way. Defiance had been a wake up call for both of them in that respect. Somehow, despite their best efforts, Defiance and the people that inhabited it wormed their way into their lives and never went away.

Now it was three years since the day that Nolan left her, three years since he sent her back to Defiance alone and left with Doc Yewell on a mission to find the Omec a home. She looked up at the stars as if they would offer up the answers to questions that deep down she knew she already knew the answers to. Why did he leave her? How she was supposed to move on with her life without Nolan's constant presence in it? Again, deep down, she knew that she already had.

She had been angry in those initial days, weeks, and months, angry that he could leave her so easily after everything they'd been through, angry that she was just supposed to figure it all out on her own now. It hadn't been easy for him though and she had already been moving away from his guidance and finding her own path for a long time. He was doing what any good father would have done in a similar situation. Spending an unforeseen amount of time in space with him and Doc Yewell wouldn't have been the best life for her to live and he was giving her a chance to find a better one.

She supposed that she was doing what he wanted. She had a job, head Lawkeeper after her father's departure and spent day and night with Berlin and whoever else showed up at the office wanting to help trying to wrangle Defiance's lingering issues. She had Amanda who was dealing with her own grief at the situation that left Nolan on an extended journey through space but tried to help her through the process where she could. And she had Berlin which wasn't something she was entirely ready to define, but was still the most stable something she had had since Tommy. Her life in relative terms was going pretty good presently and she just hoped that wherever he was out there that he would be proud of her.

Joshua Nolan was still out there somewhere among the stars, that's why she came out into the cool night air every night to gaze up at the stars and hope. She wasn't sure exactly what she would do if he ever came waltzing back into the town and came looking for her. Maybe they could do the dinners around the table that the McCawley's always used to do and pretend that they were just a normal family living in the world of Nolan's childhood. There would probably be crying and more than one hug that she would pretend not to enjoy. He could reenter her life at any moment and she'd welcome him back with open arms, but for the first time in her life since the day he rescued her from those cultists she was finding that she increasingly didn't need him to.

Defiance was her home now, a gathering place for all of the outsiders that weren't wanted anywhere else where she had friends, a job, a life. Once people left her they never came back. Her birthparents had never gone back to being her parents after they offered her up to the cult. Tommy and Sukar hadn't come back either. Despite the hope that she supposed would always linger there she couldn't allow herself to become consumed by the hope that Nolan would be different. He may come back at some point in the future or he may not, but he had given her a chance to keep pushing forward without him, a chance to make a life of her own, and she needed to continue taking it every day for her own sake.

She picked herself up off the ground and brushed the dirt off of her clothes. Nolan had given her the home that she had always wanted and while it wasn't with him that didn't make it any less special. She would never be fully Irathient despite her blood or fully human despite her upbringing and in Defiance that was something that finally felt okay. The Pale Wars were over and while there would always be lingering issues Defiance was the proof that coexistence could work. In a town like that it turned out that her diverse background was actually an asset that helped her diffuse situations far easier and faster than almost anyone else would be able to. It wasn't perfect but no home ever was and every moment that she spent in the place that her father had given her in his final act before sacrificing himself she was more certain than ever that home was exactly where she was.

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 **As far as future chapters go I'm not sure. I had plans to do a chapter about Pottinger when I first started this because I think what they did to his character was stupid. I personally never saw him as a rapist and I feel like that whole storyline could have instead been used to make his character more likable but they just squandered it. I mean that pales in comparison to the McCawley massacre which was probably the single dumbest event on the show in my opinion. I mean personally I think that season 2 was written more poorly as a whole, especially the Irisa stuff, and by the beginning of season 3 it was already getting rumors of being canceled but that bloodbath was much more of a waste as a single event in a final season that was actually much better than the previous one. Anyways, sorry for ranting, I really do love the show, I just think better decisions could have been made. I guess we'll see where the inspiration takes me next. This fic is also on Archive Of Our Own now.**


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